Chapter Text
Tuesday is not a good day for Erik Obendorf. Not that there are many good days, but today sucks more than most. Mr Ludwig had caught the red head using his phone in class and given him detention immediately. Another student might have gotten away with it, but not Erik. His reputation with most teachers is as low as it can be. He barely ever finishes his homework, is disruptive in class and some of the teachers probably suspect that he deals drugs to other students. Considering he was the only kid in detention today, he's also the last kid to leave school. Seeing his bike as the last one standing makes a deep feeling of loneliness settle in his body. He doesn't feel it often. He ignores it most of the time. Moments like these are hard to ignore, however, and make him wonder if he should put more effort into making friends. His parents warned him against it, especially since past attempts didn't go to well.
Kids would call him trailer trash and called him a druggie before he even turned ten. Winden is a small town and what your parents are and do is often reflected heavily on the children. Erik always wanted to yell at his parents when they told him to be wary of some kids. They would tell him to stay away from Franziska Doppler and Magnus and Martha Nielsen because they have a parent on the police force and his parents have been treated badly by police. Why is that, Erik would want to yell. Maybe if his parents were more normal, he could be more normal. He could have normal friends instead of only talking to classmates when they wanted drugs from him. Even when some of the other kids are nice to him, like Martha or Jonas Kahnwald, Erik doesn't know what to do with their attention. He simply isn't used to being social with his peers.
He's tried to talk to Jonas, especially since the boy has turned into a bit of an outcast since his father hanged himself a few months ago. Most kids have avoided talking to him, with the exception of the Nielsens, Bartozs Tiedeman and Franziska who have almost physically fought anyone talking behind his back. Erik has tried to approach him. He knows what it's like to feel lost. To feel like you're falling into a dark whole and there's no one to pull you out. He sees the signs in Jonas, but he doesn't know how to reach out. Maybe he just isn't meant to have friends.
He tries to shake the feeling out of him as he walks towards his bike. It doesn't matter. In three years he's done with school and he can get out of this stupid little town where nothing ever happens. Just as he reaches his bike, he hears a familiar voice call his name.
If Erik knew he wouldn't make it home that day, he would've called his mom.
Three hours after Erik Obendorf was supposed to be home after being finished in detention, Jürgen Obendorf called Katherina Nielsen. The school principle heard the tone of voice of the panicked father and immediately alerted her husband, police officer Ulrich Nielsen. An hour later a search party of cops went out to see if they could track down and find the missing boy. They would not succeed that night.